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Lockdown Trouble Shooting in China

Hey guys,

There was a competition here a month or so back.

Long story short, I lost. To the same guy, twice.

At about 30s in, he takes me down but I get a Lockdown in and we restart in the middle. Problem is that I had a wrong side underhook, and his chest and head were both on that side and smashing it... very hard to come up into Dog Fight or move at all frankly. We start in the middle at about 58s in. I tried to move, but it was very very difficult. I couldnt whipdown, couldnt get the second underhook, eventually I went for the stomp but he just postured and I lost the clinch.

He had a hard time passing, but its pretty clear that I didnt have a good plan when the guy started standing passing. Honestly I feel confused about how to engage when guys are standing passing in general.

TLDR

What to do when you have the "wrong side" underhook and the move their head and chest on top so you cant come up into dogfight

My go to from LD is to head straight to whipdown (aka reverse LD), when I have the underhook on the "right" side I always do that and get my game going from there. Pumping the LD is something I have a hard time with when guys just tenses their leg and keeps it very straight and kind of sprawls their hips. I feel kind of locked in.

Im going to troubleshoot this week and see what I can comeup with.

Usually im able to stick with them during stomp, but the underhook and chest position made it really tough.

I found out that this guy is on the pro judo team in his province here in china. I'll try to work on a new strategy next time I go up against him.

I think you did pretty well overall. Your guard retention was excellent. It’s hard when the opponent is not wanting to engage directly but rather run around. I may have just stood up and said fine, let’s wrestle a little, looking for a snap down to a front headlock or feeding him a single leg to get a kimura trap. Your underhook didn’t seem to be on the wrong side but rather you just didn’t have double unders.

For standing passers, I usually go shin to shin to enter into ashi or get DLR or RDLR into mantis. If you’re insistent on playing Lockdown, black mamba them and pull them to 1/4 guard then transition to Lockdown.

One other thing, as you know, being flat on your back tends to weaken the Lockdown, requiring more strength to whip. Getting even a little bit to your right side may have created the space to get your right elbow in to go to double unders.

Hey, Tyler. First, I love the videos that you've put out about Lockdown, so thank you for those.

A couple of years ago while rolling with Rener Gracie I ended up in this exact position. He took a different approach than your opponent, which was to bring his left knee up and over to the other side, essentially knee slicing through my Lockdown. Now that I think about it, that basically put him in a Lockdrag from the top. Anyhow, the first thing that jumps out at me watching your match is the COP sweep. Of course I have no idea how well-positioned that guy's underhook was, but assuming that you could break it down and get a clinch together, the sweep could be available.

It's strange watching it unfold the way it does, because the flow chart in my mind tells me that if he's in top half and you get that underhook then he is supposed to go to the Sitting Pass / Twister Pass. I'm going to mess around with this position tonight, and I'll report back with any ideas.

Good luck!

Edit: MTS 148 Advanced Clinch Combos seems to cover this pretty directly, except for the added problem of their head placement.

Edit 2: The whole position seems to come down to either smashing that underhook and going to the COP sweep, or getting a nice whip down and maybe chopping that right arm out like Gracie Combatives Elevator Sweep Headlock Variation-style (if you know what I mean...left hand to left ear, basically).

@Daniel
For my I dont have a lot of faith in my drl/rdlr/shin to shin/ and 1/4 guard is so hard to play against a beast like that guy. There is just nobody around me who plays it well and there is very little resources/videos out there on it. Your technique has to be really on point because your really starting from the bottom of the barrel. There are bits and pieces around, a technique here or there.. but figuring out as a whole system on your own is really tough.
I play 1/4 but its not something I would want to go to in a comp setting.

@Charles
I remember a bit from that COP clinch episode, basically body locking them and rolling them to the right side right?
I have been playing around a bit with the position myself, and a brown belt friend of mine here gave me a really nice sweep from there as well as a black belt that has helped me troubleshoot it as well.

I really liked making the lockdown 101 videos as well, but I was told that if I wanted to stay in 10p to stop making them because I am only a purple belt. I can have brown or black belts come on my channel and teach, so I'll give that a go. Ive got a couple videos ideas and some higher belts willing to help me, so I'll try to get them out in the next couple weeks.

Interesting match. I get problems like this quite a lot too. I noticed that you managed to get a 'Shitty Underhook' with your left arm. There are a few possibilities you might want to explore:

1. One possibility is to improve the Shitty Underhook to a better underhook by whipping to the right, using the left arm to uppercut the opponent's armpit, crunch a little & shifting your hip to one side at the same time (right hip down, left hip up). This will create a bit of space for you to improve your left underhook to a more optimum position and attempt to sneak your right hand out to an underhook position.

2. Another way to improve your left underhook is to transition to a Coyote Guard by using your left leg to twist your opponent's right leg as much as possible, then use your left arm to uppercut your opponent's right armpit to improve your left underhook position.

3. Another possibility is to secure a Bodylock by clasping both hands in a Gable Grip and bring in your left Butterfly foot to his right thigh and play the Stomp game.

You should be whipping your legs around much more and using the dipset to help you pummel until you get double underhooks in lockdown. He was smart holding his head in that position but it also looks like if you were whipping your legs back and forth, you could have used homie control to shuck your head to the other side.

@Ricky
I think the upper cut could help, together with the whipping motion of the Dipset. Maybe like you said I could get to my side at least a bit and work for the double unders.
Im liking the leg torque of the Coyote HG a lot and I have been playing with it a bit recently.

@Jon
Ill try going for Homie from there. I felt pretty weak when I connected my hands together with his head in that position, but I think youre spot on with needing to use the whip up and down more.